A Journey of Achieving Speed Through Innovation

In the dynamic landscape of insurtech, where innovation reshapes the insurance industry, the ability to swiftly iterate, adapt, and implement design solutions becomes paramount. Well-crafted user experiences (UX) play a pivotal role in customer acquisition, satisfaction, and retention. To thrive in this rapidly evolving environment, streamlined processes, de-risking innovative ideas, and staying updated on design trends, emerging technologies, and customer preferences are essential.

In this article we will look at this elements, from the 

Continuous Discovery and Speed

At ELEMENT, we understand the significance of continuous discovery as a key element to achieve agility. Our UX designers engage in a continuous cadence of research activities, conducting interviews and data analysis on a regular basis. This approach allows us to react swiftly to new opportunities and insights. By gaining a deep understanding of user needs and pain points through discovery interviews and walkthroughs, we are able generate solutions rapidly. Cross-functional collaboration enhances collective understanding and innovation.

Focusing on analytics tools and supporting it by monitoring Hotjar recordings empowers us to promptly address observed patterns, enhancing the user experience. For example, identifying usability issues in Hotjar recordings prompts us to streamline the user interface swiftly.

Rapid Experimentation for De-risking

In the risk-averse insurance industry, rapid experimentation becomes the key to de-risking bold ideas. Early testing of assumptions in low-fidelity prototypes prevents investing significant time in solutions that might not align with customer needs. This approach ensures that development efforts target solutions offering genuine value.

Consider an instance where claims handlers faced challenges due to the high level of additional information required from customers to successfully process their claims. To address this, we prototyped an interface to guide customers through an automated process. Through prototype tests, we validated usability and refined the solution, mitigating potential risks.

Swift Product Development

Element's success story is evident in its rapid product development cycle. Our culture of experimentation and calculated risk-taking empowered us to conceptualize, prototype, test, and iterate swiftly. Embracing new technologies positioned ELEMENT as a thought leader in the industry.

Maintaining collaboration within a continuous feedback loop is integral to agility. We adopt a 'Product Trio' approach, considering business requirements, user needs, and technical feasibility throughout the process. This approach ensures a holistic perspective from planning to testing and building.

Operational Excellence through Technology

ELEMENT’s journey to operational excellence involved transforming internal processes. Adapting from unstandardized procedures and custom solutions, we embraced efficiency through innovation. Collaborative cross-functional efforts reshaped our dynamics, leading to shared insights and collective problem-solving. Regular check-ins with Business Teams identified bottlenecks, enabling the development of standardized workflows that streamlined operations. Partner go-live times decreased significantly, while response times improved. 

Leveraging automation and digital tools, we achieved operational excellence without compromising quality. This efficiency freed resources for strategic growth initiatives, propelling ELEMENT’s success as an insurance leader.

One of the greatest examples of this is, how we changed our Partner Onboarding processes. Initially, the process included heavy Dev team involvement with developers needing to configure all aspects of the insurance product for our partners like the pricing configuration, documents, e-mails.

This meant the onboarding would take around 1 week to be completed and the timing could go up to 2-3 weeks in some cases due to priorities. Of course, needless to mention the dependency on the Development Team for the onboardings which is never the ideal case for business processes since Development Team essentially does not need to know about each and every partner being onboarded. After identifying this bottleneck which was preventing us from increasing our time-to-market metrics, we began working on tools to enable business teams completing onboarding with little to no Tech involvement.

 We have provided new interfaces and tools which enabled Business teams to create, clone and configure new partners and products; enabled them to configure the documents and branding for the documents. Also, we have introduced tools to allow Pricing Managers to configure pricing structure of the insurance products with no development team involvement.

All of these changes not only made the business teams independent from Development Teams but it also decreased the onboarding time from weeks to just 2 to 3 days of work in the extreme cases. Needless to say, thanks to our tools most of our partners go live without Tech Teams being involved or even informed about the onboarding process.

Innovation as a guiding light

ELEMENT’s dedication to innovation extended beyond external changes. By embracing data-driven decision-making, we transformed operations, product development, and customer engagement. This data-centric approach enabled faster and more precise strategic decisions, highlighting the impact of innovation.

The journey from customized processes to a standardized, efficient company reflects resilience, vision, and transformation. The fusion of speed, innovation, and operational excellence continues to drive Element's success in the ever-evolving insurtech landscape.

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